


desert crier, luminous liar

by ghostlypng



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, SHEITH - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-12 15:37:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19948636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostlypng/pseuds/ghostlypng
Summary: In one timeline, Shiro never escapes the Black Lion. Instead, he becomes something more. Keith is grieving when this god-like Shiro finds him in the desert. Promises are made like the ancient vows in a sacred rite. Neither Keith nor the Shiro of his reality, who still an ordinary man, are expecting the trials that are coming ahead. They'll learn just how much need each other.





	desert crier, luminous liar

They meet in the desert. When howling sobs are ripping out of Keith's chest, fearlessly as a child without inhibitions.

Black, silver-streaked hair. Breath visible in frigid air.

Eyes that seem iridescent under the bright moon. Pupils of pitch blackness that carry infinite possibilities in their never-ending depths.

A god reaches an unnatural hand that feels of ice down to Keith Kogane and waits patiently.

“Who are you?” Keith’s voice, raw from grieving, travels out into the black of the night. The being tilts its head ever so slightly.

“I came to get you.”

Keith takes the hand and doesn’t look back.

He falls asleep, cool glass supporting his lolling head in a sleek car.

He dreams of tumbling through space screaming I love you, I love you, I love you on repeat. The void cries nothing back.

The sensation of falling greets him when he wakes as well. His fingers dig into muscle, solid and warm.

"It's alright, go back to sleep."

Keith wants to protest but his eyes slip shut, warm and cradled now in the god-stranger's arms.

He wakes in a dark room and nearly panics before his mind snaps into focus, recalling the night’s earlier events.

His hand moves, sliding over silky grey sheets so his fingers can trace over the long scar that spans, cheek to cheek, across the stranger's face.

For a while they lay together in silence, observing one another.

"Who are you?" Keith whispers. He has a sense of deja vu, as though he should know.

"A dreamer once. Then a fighter, a champion, and a leader." He pauses. "Lost, but always found." He presses a kiss to Keith's forehead like a blessing.

"But who are you?" Keith presses, voice firmer. More insistent in his curiosity.

"I started my life... Less extraordinary. A human with fear and despair and desire. Then I became part of the infinite expanse of a creature capable of things beyond the limits of time, space and death. One can only observe and learn in places like that. It requires patience that yields immortal gifts. Or curses, depending on who you ask.”

The room is quiet before the man-god speaks again. “My existence became a spin of the tale of Atlas perhaps? A hero with a heavy burden set on their shoulders."

"That's the name you go by then? Atlas?"

"Hm. Once, for some who have known me in certain lifetimes. You though, I always become Takashi but Shiro will do for now."

Keith mulls the information over and over again. It could be the ravings of a madman, mentally unstable and living in a fantasy. But who was Keith to say? He had combed the desert following a gut feeling, hunting, and hunting in his obsession and turning up empty-handed every time. He still had little clue of what he was even seeking until the previous night.

"So I know you?"

"In a way. I doubt your mind has any memory to draw on but your soul called out to me. Otherwise, I might not have appeared."

"I called out to you last night then? How?"

"I always forget what the first time is like. The questions you have. The reassurance you seek. I'll tell you everything, just please don't run from me."

Could he feel the nervous pattern of his heartbeat? Keith wondered. It was more logical than the god-being having an ability to see into Keith's heart and mind but somehow, the more logical reasoning made less sense.

"I can't promise I won't. But I'll try."

"That's all I would ask. Just for your patience."

Keith props his head up in his hand, elbow digging into a soft pillow. "So tell me something then."

"What would you like to know most?"

"Everything."

"We are... Connected. Originally it was you who would seek me out, a man who believed in the power of good thoughts and deeds simply as a principle way of life. Something changed, however. I died and left you behind."

"When you… Became part of the god?"

"It wasn't a god. Gods have control of things. A power to change life to suit their whims. This was simply… A being from the creation of the infinity beyond what a mortal can conceive."

"Oh."

"It changed me. Moved my existence somewhere liminal. Prepared me for rebirth into a new form. I looked for you, probably for too long, before I knew you had moved on to the next life. So I began to look for you again, this time in other pockets of the infinity."

"Alternate realities?"

"Essentially, yes." Takashi's cold, onyx fingers cards through Keith's hair.

"And do you always find me?" He watches Takashi grimace.

"No. And sometimes I regret that I do."

"Really?"

"I've found you, in this reality, twice now."

"What was the first time?"

"You called to me the day of your father's funeral. His death brought us together the first time. Certain events and emotions, like grief and loss, heighten the connect. Make it easier to locate you in the vastness."

"I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry?"

"It must be hard. To find me only because I'm sad or lonely I guess. That you don't find me when I'm happy and living well."

"It is better than never finding you at all."

Keith looks away, down at the bedsheets and ignores the implication that in some realities he may not exist.

"Is it too much for you?"

"No!" Keith smoothes fabric under his fingers. "I'm just… Processing I guess. Tell me something you like sharing with me instead."

"There are several things I enjoy sharing with you across our shared lifetimes." Shiro's fingers trail softly over Keith's face, mapping out cheekbone then nose, down to his slightly parted lips.

"And… Do I enjoy it?" Keith wiggles closer. "Sharing with you?"

"I like to believe that you enjoy it very much. I try my best to never leave you wanting."

"Prove it." Keith challenges, more brazen than he's ever felt his entire life.

Shiro wastes no time, pulling Keith to occupy the last bit of space between them. He touches Keith like a long-time lover. As if he knows already what touches make Keith's nerves sing and burn at every end. It's likely he must if everything Shiro says it true.

"You make it hard to say no." His body rolls, so he can cover Keith with it. "Are you afraid of me?"

"Has any version of me ever been?"

"No."

Keith leans up, need burning him up inside. "I'm not, even though this is crazy, I've been looking for you too. Since that first time, I've always needed you."

"Keith…" He says it so soft, like a man who has lost everything and is only beginning to let go. He leans his weight down, pressing Keith back into the sheets. "You're incredible."

Gold lights from a passing car flicker through the window, gone in seconds with little sound. Shiro's expression frightens Keith in its intensity. He shivers, frozen, and doesn't fight the press of Shiro's mouth to his.

It's warm and wet, but just rightly so. Finally. Some part of his brain whispers. Hands creep up his shirt to touch skin. The sensation of falling strikes him again and leaves him clinging tight.

“You’re shaking.” Shiro whispers between them. “Open your eyes, you don’t have to be scared.”

“Why?”

“I’ll protect you, I promise.”

“No, why do you think I’m scared?” Keith searches for Shiro’s face but it’s both to close and too dark in the room.

“...”

“Did something happen? Is there… Should I be?”

“No, absolutely not. Other lifetimes don’t determine this one. But you are always ready to run. Have you ever made love to anyone? Woken up and found them missing in the morning?”

Keith knows his silence is telling. Somehow, now, he really is afraid. He could wake up on the cold ground, the domestic scene of Shiro’s bedroom all a dream like so many unconscious fantasies his brain had spun for him many nights before.

“I’m not eager to leave after only just getting you in my arms.”

“The first time you found the current me though?” Keith curses himself for pressing but the urge is un-repressible.

“You were young.”

“Not that young.” Keith accuses as if knows how their timeline is meant to go.

“No, not that young but what would I have done? Comforted a boy as a man while knowing I was waiting for him to grow?”

Keith turns his head away, angry but knowing Shiro is right.

Shiro’s thumb brushes hair from Keith’s forehead and travels down to his temple. “Please look at me. I’m here now. I’m here with you.” He captures Keith’s mouth in a kiss and refuses to let up until Keith is squirming under him again, breathless.

Keith’s hands resume their curious wandering under Shiro’s shirt. All his life has felt like a cycle of loss and regain, again and again. Looping in a climbing helix, never having overlap. “Can I have you now?” He pleads Shiro.

“Tonight is only for you.”

He hears it as a promise. “Good.”  
They break apart for short moments at a time, taking time to look and touch while ridding each other and themselves of clothing. Everything dissolves for Keith into the simple wish of wanting to be held by Shiro forever.

They make love. Keith forgets about his anger of the earlier day. His mind cataloging it to agonize over much, much later. It’s messy and over in a hurry but it leaves Keith laughing into the bare skin of Shiro’s shoulder.

“That good?” Shiro grins at him.

Keith answers with a kiss and amusement in his gaze. “Hm, maybe we need more practice.” They’re both laughing then, play wrestling and enjoying skin on skin contact. Slowly, contently, Keith falls asleep wrapped in warm arms.

He wakes slowly, a smile on his face before his eyes open. “Good morning.” He whispers, opening his eyes to his own bedroom, chilled in the morning air and empty. “No…”

He flies up in a panic, pulling a shirt on, his lower half already covered by boxers he can’t remember owning. His feet seem to glide down the glossy wooden stairs of his uncle’s home, skipping as many steps as possible without taking a tumble.

“Krolia…” He croaks. He wasn’t prepared for this. To wake up in his own home, alone, with the mother who left him behind sitting, coffee mug in hand, with his uncles at their kitchen table.

He wants to shout or to scream at her but all he can manage is a quiet, hurt sounding question. “Why are you here?”

“You fainted last night and I, we,” She corrects, “Were worried about you.”

“No…” Keith falls to his knees. “No, no, no! This isn’t real, it isn’t!” He throws a punch down into the floor. He won’t cry in front of this woman, even if she birthed him. He doesn’t want her, he wants Shiro.

“Keith!” Krolia admonishes, already up from her chair and moving to stop Keith in his path of self-harm. “It will be okay!”

“It won’t,” He gasps, sobs crawling out of his mouth like demons, their clawed hands leaving decimation in their wake.

“You’re alright, it will be okay, I promise you this.” She cradles him, rocking them softly together. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for leaving you.” She mumbles into his hair.

“It’s fine.” He pulls his shirt up to wipe his eyes.

Kolivan clears his throat from somewhere in the room. “Keith. Krolia. A new neighbor came to say hello.” He explains, upset for having intruded on the end of a moment that must look so tender and vulnerable from the outside.

“Hi, uh, I brought baked goods. They’re just store-bought though, I’m afraid I’m not much of a cook.”

Keith’s eyes catch a warm, tan hand carding through solid dark brown bangs.

“I’ll just leave them and, um, come back later. Or you’re all welcome over later.”

“No, it’s okay,” Keith scrambled to his feet, pulling Krolia clumsily up with him. “Really.”

He sticks his hand out to their neighbor, already forgetting he’s standing there in his underwear with a post-crying face. “Keith. And this is,” He glances to Krolia beside him. “My mom, Krolia.” She shares a careful smile.

“A pleasure to meet you…?”

“Ah, call me Shiro, please.” His cheeks are pink as if he’s finally realizing Keith is standing there in his underwear. “It’s really no trouble to come back later.”

“Nonsense,” Krolia waves a hand in the air, brushing the thought away. “Keith, why don’t you go change. I’ll put on a fresh pot of coffee for us to enjoy with whatever baked goods you’ve brought for everyone to share. I hope you’ve brought enough to be prepared for the appetite of three grown men.” Keith can hear her teasing laughter as she leads Shiro off to another room of the house, Kolivan following behind after a curious last glance at Keith. He knows Keith will come to him when he’s ready. When he needs his uncle’s stoic brand of advice.

“Shiro, but one day…” Keith mumbles to himself, alone. He looks up, picturing stars in place of the cream stucco ceiling of his home. “I can be patient.” He promises. “Don’t give up on me.”

“Keith! Hurry up! The neighbor brought your favorite!”

“Coming!” He races up the stairs, nearly stumbling in his hurry to join them.

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't beta this, i just really like the study of religion and film and thus this au was birthed.
> 
> lmk if you like it?


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